Birds at the Toronto Zoo

Posted on February 27, 2019 by Mama Cormier

….cold, grey and windy outside but warm and calm indoors

On Sunday, despite the forecast of high winds and rain, the Turners and I ventured to the Toronto Zoo. We had a lovely day and the rain never materialized to more than a mist and the high winds held off until we left.

One of my favourite places at the zoo is the Rain Forest Pavilion. For one thing it’s very dry and quite warm in there. It houses some beautiful greenery and some very interesting birds. One of the most interesting for me was the Hamerkop. This is a medium sized bird that lives in the wetlands of Madagascar, Africa and Arabia. It is famous for the large nests it likes to build and the one at the Toronto Zoo is no exception.

Homer is free to fly around the pavilion and the staff leave nesting materials lying around for him to build his dome shaped nest. These nests can be as big as 2 metres deep and 2 metres wide. Not only has Homer used the building materials that are left for him but he’s clearly found other objects, like mittens and pieces of paper to add to his structure.

Most of the other birds were kept in more enclosed areas to protect them from flying into the cold outside. They seemed pretty content with their surroundings where there were numerous trees, perches and resting areas.

Some birds were very happy to share a space with the resident rhinoceros .

Mundane Monday #200 – Crop

Posted on February 26, 2019 by Mama Cormier

….thanks to Ko Rural Mad as Hell blog for hosting Mundane Monday

Dictionary result for crop

/kräp/

noun

a cultivated plant that is grown as food, especially a grain, fruit, or vegetable.

“the main crops were oats and barley”
an amount of produce harvested at one time.

“a heavy crop of fruit”

synonyms: harvest, year’s growth, yield, produce, vintage, gathering, reaping, gleaning, garnering;

fruits

“some farmers lost their entire crop”

an abundance of something, especially a person’s hair.

“he had a thick crop of wiry hair”

the total number of young farm animals born in a particular year on one farm.

This bird certainly has a thick crop of feathers on top of his head.

An abundant crop of apples on the tree and vegetables at the market.

A New Bird for Winnie

Posted on February 21, 2019 by Mama Cormier

….a little under the weather so my husband missed a few drawing days

Today’s drawing would have been good for Weird Bird Wednesday but it was posted today. Winnie’s only comment today was that Sundays should be Sunday Rabbits. Kevin’s working on that.

In the Cubby?

Posted on February 10, 2019 by Mama Cormier

….had to ask where the cubby was

When our granddaughter saw today’s drawing she said it had to go in the cubby. We know that at preschool she has a cubby to store her personal items. Maybe all Valentine related things need to stay there until the big day.

Red Duck

Posted on February 4, 2019 by Mama Cormier

….#3 of the transparency film collages

I’m really enjoying this technique and as promised I tried something other than flowers. One of my random cuts turned out to look like a duck so I built a landscape around him. I can only assume he’s a he because of his bright colours. I added some marker detail on the duck, such as an eye and feathers. After gluing everything down I felt there was too much white so I added a wash of colour with my Winsor Newton Promarkers.

Nature’s Ice Sculptures

Posted on February 3, 2019 by Mama Cormier

….with the spike in temperatures this weekend I’m not sure how long these will last

Unlike parts of England where they are already contemplating spring, we will certainly see more snow and ice and low temperatures. Right now we’ve gone from an Arctic Vortex to above freezing in a matter of days. It’s not very pretty out there with all the slush and run off from the snow banks. Fortunately I went out on Friday and found these beautiful ice sculptures along the shores of Lake Ontario just a couple hundred metres from our house. The ice is created when the waves hit the rocks and come up over the banks onto the trees and bushes.

It’s rare for Lake Ontario to freeze but you can see the ice flows close to the shore in some of these photos and yes those are swans out on the lake. Most of them have their heads nestled close to their bodies under their wings.

It’s a Family Affair

Posted on January 23, 2019 by Mama Cormier

….of the feathery kind

Kevin named this drawing Mommy Bird, Daddy Bird and Winnie Bird. Our granddaughter loved this drawing and her comments were:

“Little Winnie owl……awww!”

“She’s so cutie.”

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge – Black and White

Posted on January 23, 2019 by Mama Cormier

…thanks to Cee for hosting the Fun Foto Challenge

Having Fun With Collage

Posted on January 18, 2019 by Mama Cormier

….turns out I have another week before the next lesson

I thought I would never be able to get all eight of my collage pages that Carla Sonheim assigned us to do before the next lesson. Well there was no new lesson this week because the lessons happen every two weeks. That’s probably why we’re given so many projects to do. There is, however, no pressure to do all of them but since I have the time now I went back to my sketch book and completed my fourth piece.

This one started with a stone monolith and I added an owl face from an Inuit artist named Laakuluk Williamson Bathory. I didn’t know where to go with this piece until I found a picture of a large snake. I decided to make this one fun so I added some speech balloons and small critters reacting to the snake.

Looking Back to a Warm Autumn Day in Regent’s Park

Posted on January 15, 2019 by Mama Cormier

….another day in London

As the temperatures dip below freezing this week I long for the warm sunny days we had in London, England. On day seven we walked to Ottolenghi’s restaurant on Upper Street and purchased a picnic lunch for the four of us. Then we hopped onto a double decker bus and made our way to Regent’s Park.

Regent’s Park is one of the Royal Parks of London. It lies within north-west London. It is home to Queen Mary’s Gardens and the London Zoo. There are numerous facilities and amenities, including gardens; a lake with a heronry, waterfowl and a boating area; sports pitches; and children’s playgrounds.

One of the highlights for me was Queen Mary’s Gardens. I’ve posted numerous photos of the thousands of roses that have been cultivated her in previous posts. Here are some of the other lovely sites we enjoyed that day.

The park is also home to numerous events. When we were there we had a quick glimpse of the sculpture exhibit.

As you can see we were blessed with beautiful weather that day and every day up to this point of our trip. Unfortunately the next day the skies opened up and our trip to Brighton Beach was cancelled.